RACIST thugs have stoked up anti-Iraqi tensions after smashing up and burning out an man's business, destroying his livelihood and leaving it daubed with hateful graffiti.

But the mindless arsonists got the nationality of the owner wrong - inferring the victim originated from Pakistan - in red paint across the remains of the Afendi Ingredients building they trashed.

Fallah Kanno, originally from Iraq, built up his spice company from scratch when he arrived in Levenshulme 22 years ago but the attack on Saturday night has left him a broken man.

He said: "It is such a shock and it's very upsetting. When I got there on Sunday there was just nothing left, nothing. No roof, no walls, no stock, no machines, no computers.

"I have lost everything from ten years of hard work. The business was going so well. We kept expanding and we had only been in these new premises for five months.

"I had just secured a new contract worth £250,000 to supply our spices but I will loose it now."

Two years ago the Chamber of Commerce declared Afendi the best business in Manchester and the company has been experiencing an amazing growth rate of 30-35 per cent a year.

They supply over 150 different herbs and spices to outlets across the country and abroad from the now destroyed base on Chapel Street.

Mr Kanno, 43, says he has never before been subjected to racial hatred in Levenshulme but this experience has made him lose his faith in people.

He said: "I don't know why they picked on me. Maybe they have seen me coming in and out or maybe just from the name of the company they know I am not English.

"My five staff are being very supportive at the moment but they are all without jobs now, just like me."

A married father-of-three, Mr Kanno is a well-respected and popular Levenshulme businessman and friends cannot understand why he has been targeted in this way.

Close friend, Reverend Nick Hall said: "He is the last person on earth you could imagine anyone having a grudge against.

"He has built this company up from nothing and he is so well liked around here. It is just very, very sad."

Police are treating the attack as arson and are urging anyone who has any information about the incident, which took place in the early hours of Sunday morning, to contact Longsight CID on 0161 856 4240.